After a wonderful breadfast and start to the day in Casas Grandes we rode south for the entire day. The first part of the day we passed through Mennonite family apple orchards some of which had elaborate tents that could be pulled over entire rows of trees as protection from hail.

Further south we climbed through the beautiful Sierra Madre foothills then on into the mountains themselves as we moved toward El Divisadero and the amazing Copper Canyon. After getting the bikes parked and settled in our rooms we had a nice visit in the bar before an interesting and unexpected fare dinner.

Our lodge and the restaurant are right on the edge of the canyon yet once darkness fell we could have been anywhere less special.

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A wonderful first day. We started the day early and rode the 55 miles to the Santa Teresa border crossing. Just inside Mexico we spent about an hour or so processing ourselves and our vehicles for entry into the country. Click on any image to see a larger size and description and slide the image gallery for more description.

Then it was off for a beautiful and warm 200 miles heading southwest to Casas Grandes. Along the way we made our first of what would become routine stops for petol at a Pemex station followed by a wonderful first meal in a roadside cafe.

We arrived around three at our hotel/B&B so after unpacking and settling in we walked over and toured the nearby Paquime ruins (from about 900 AD). Our hostess, Mata Ortiz, was also our guide to Paquime (clicking on either of the Paquimes will jump to the UNESCO site describing it).

Mata also suggested a fabulous restaurant in Nuevo Casas Grande where she and we all had dinner. I had an amazing dish of the house’s special organic turkey, maybe my best turkey meal ever.

A good time for an introduction to all the players on our adventure. There are seven of us:

Our leader is Roger whose home is Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico. He’ll remain the Aerostich “Man in Red” in most of the images to follow. Here he is by the aqueduct as we ride out of Morelia.

Ken, our support driver, hails from Alamagordo, New Mexico and brought his wonderful sense of fun and lightness to the group. It was certainly an ongoing blessing to me knowing he was behind me with all the tools and knowledge to help me out of any binds I might get into.

And here is a video of the four remaining players. Ron, on the right of the group, is from Omaha, Nebraska and figures he’s ridden over half a million miles on his various motorcycles over the years. He and I roomed together quite a few nights and he very freely suggested things to me that made my experience, particularly on our off road days, enormously better than they would have been. Ongoing thanks Ron.

The other three very nice men are all good buddies from Canada, just south of Winnipeg. How enviable to have such an adventure with two of your best mates. Left to right at the table we have Ed with his characteristic smile, Daryl, and Murray (who took responsibility for fresh coffee on this chilly morning). Click on the arrow to see them become dynamic.

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Here is a map of our journey. The route is shown in red and we rode it counterclockwise.

Day 2 Casas Grandes to El Divisadero (292 miles)

Day 1 – Las Cruces to Casas Grandes (202 miles) [POST]